This is the last place I ran--my mom's home town in Minnesota for my cousin Tiff's wedding in February. Got lost, of course, but it was so fun, such a beautiful place! Historic downtown Faribault is just as it sounds: a place time forgot. They filmed parts of Grumpy Old Men here and the "downtown" part is but one long corridor of brick store fronts, coffee shops, diners, bars, a resale boutique called the "The Closet" and an old fashioned pharmacy that gleams with green and purple glass potion bottles in the display window. Even a barber shop with one of those candy-cane posts marking the outside.

So, how did I get lost? Well I ran way past "downtown" from my grandma's house and into steep, hilly streets lined by oddly shaped mansions nestled between broken down shacks and multi-colored Victorians. I even saw an ancient looking red house with a widow's walk. I tried to use all the strange, beautiful, timeless sites to make my way back after I had gone four miles but found that I was starting to literarly run in circles--the last landmark I remembered was a small market called "Nelsons" which bordered "central park" I had four directions to choose from to run back to my Grandma's, tried all four and decided there must be a fifth one somewhere I couldn't see, when my Aunt Sarah pulled up and I hopped in her car-- I thought she had been sent to find me but she was as just on her way to Nelsons-- only in Faribault.

tomorrow I start my training in earnest for my half-marathon at Bayshore again this year. I'm not going with TNT this time but I am going with some friends I met through TNT.

I'm meeting my friend Michelle at Stoney at 8 in the morning, so of course I can't sleep.

My goal: A) keep up with Michelle---probably won't happen as I have not run, except in MN, since the January race. B) Go three miles without stopping C)total of four miles.

Next weekend I'm running in Detroit's Corktown, St. Patrick's day race and it's an odd four mile race. I at least want to be able to do four miles the week before!